I've been having a serious issue with my computer recently. Normally, it runs games smoothly, but today, when I booted up to play, I experienced terrible stuttering—not just in-game, but also with audio and even on the desktop when the game was minimized. I tried all the usual fixes: restarting the game, rebooting my PC, switching games, updating drivers, and tweaking BIOS settings, but nothing helped.
I ran OCCT to diagnose the problem. The results were confusing: I saw no issues with CPU or GPU stress tests, but when I ran a memory stress test, my PC stuttered even at just 30% usage, although it didn't throw any errors during the test. The temperatures were reasonable, peaking at 55C. I thought there might be a stability issue, so I disabled EXPO and reseated the RAM sticks, but it didn't improve anything.
I've always thought that when RAM fails, the system either won't post or errors appear during tests. But since it only stutters during memory tests, I'm really starting to wonder if the RAM is on its last legs or if it could be the motherboard instead.
If anyone has suggestions, I'd really appreciate it! Here are my specs:
CPU: Ryzen 9 9900X
GPU: Nvidia RTX 5080 FE
Memory: 32GB Gskill Trident 6400mt/s CL32 (when using EXPO profile)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus X870 WiFi 7
PSU: Corsair RM1000x shift
1 Answer
It sounds like your RAM might be having issues. I'd recommend running Memtest86 to check for any errors. It's a good tool for diagnosing RAM problems. By the way, does the stuttering happen in all games, or just some?
Yeah, I ran it and got a full pass. The stuttering happens across all games.